“I’m glad we got Eli in his first start and not his fourth or fifth,” said Falcons coach Jim Mora. “I think he’s going to be just like his brother [Peyton] in a few years and I’m glad we got him now.”

The Kid may have lost his first start, 14-10, to Michael Vick and the Falcons last night, but do not lose sight of this fact: Manning is not surrounded by the same team that Ben Roethlisberger has around him in Pittsburgh.

With his father Archie in a blue Giants cap, anxiously leaning forward in Section 101 over the tunnel that leads to the Giants’ locker room; with Giant Stadium apoplectic with anticipation and electric with excitement over the start of this new era, young Manning provided a glimpse into a bright future that will not be that far away.

“He’s got the genetics, baby,” said old Giant Carl Banks.

The mark of a big-time quarterback is whether he gets up after they bloody him; Manning, betrayed by drops from his playmakers (see Jeremy Shockey) in the first half, got up from a 14-0 deficit – and a ghastly second interception – and got Giants Stadium up with him. And even though he couldn’t finish the job, finding himself 42 yards short of a storybook ending after a fourth-and-3 pass for Jeremy Shockey was batted away by Keith Brooking, you left Giants Stadium last night recognizing that although he lost this battle, he is going to win the war.

Not now, perhaps, but maybe as soon as next year.

“I think he showed us that we can do well this year, not five years from now,” Tiki Barber said.

Manning, the franchise’s Hope diamond, started showing that when he scrambled right and flipped a resourceful third-down pass over an onrushing defender for 10 yards to Barber, sparking a 16-play, 72-yard, 7:53 drive. Manning capped it off with a six-yard TD pass to Shockey. Archie stood and applauded. “It’s always exciting to get your first touchdown pass in the NFL,” Manning said.

Alas, there would be no second TD pass yesterday because Manning, third-and-goal from the 8, could not burn the blitz early in the fourth quarter, could not drive his team all the way from his 26 with 1:52 remaining and one timeout left.

He thought he could.

“Let’s win this one,” The Kid said in the huddle.

Exhibiting a command and a poise beyond his years, Manning took what the Cover-2 Falcons gave him, which was nothing deep down the sidelines. He got rid of the ball quickly throughout the game, succumbing to only a single sack by the Falcons. “He didn’t seem like he was a rookie out there,” right tackle David Diehl said.

He sure didn’t sound like one in the post-game interview. He made no excuses. He pointed the finger at himself. He gets it.

“I gotta step it up,” Manning said. “When your defense plays that well and holds Atlanta to 14 points, you should win that game.”

The drops? “A lot of ’em were bad throws,” Manning said. “I gotta be more accurate. At some points, I was throwing the ball too quickly, not getting my feet set. As the game went on, I got a feel for the speed of the game and got in the flow of things a little better.”

He burned two costly timeouts in the third quarter and said, “That’s on me,” even if Barber later said it was on him. He blamed himself for throwing into a zone blitz and having defensive end Brady Smith intercept it at the Atlanta 20 late in the third quarter. “That’s something I guess you can call a rookie mistake,” Manning said.